Reuters, 31/05 15:32 CET
By Alex Whiting
LONDON (Thomson Reuters
Foundation) – Almost 46 million people are living as slaves globally
with the greatest number in India but the highest prevalence in North
Korea, according to the third Global Slavery Index launched on Tuesday
with Australian actor Russell Crowe.
The index, by Australia-based human rights group Walk
Free Foundation, increased its estimate of people born into servitude,
trafficked for sex work, or trapped in debt bondage or forced labour to
45.8 million from 35.8 million in 2014.
Andrew Forrest, founder of Walk Free, said the rise of
nearly 30 percent was due to better data collection, although he feared
the situation was getting worse with global displacement and migration
increasing vulnerability to all forms of slavery.
Forrest, an Australian mining billionaire and
philanthropist, urged businesses to check their supply chains for worker
exploitation, saying he found thousands of people trapped in slavery
making goods for his company Fortescue Metals Group.
“But I’ve had some of some biggest entrepreneurs in the
world look me in the eye and say I will not look for slavery in case I
find it,” he said at the launch of the index in London.
Crowe, who played Roman emperor-turned-slave Maximus in
the 2000 movie “Gladiator”, described the plight of people “in our
communities who are stuck, utterly helpless and trapped in a cycle of
despair and degradation with no choice and no hope.”
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Source: euronews.
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